Why we treated Naruto as we did
by Quillebore
Summary: One shot. An account from the POV of a random Konoha ninja, years later.


Disclaimer: do not own Naruto and unlikely to do so, ever.

People wonder why Naruto san was so reviled when "logically" he shouldn't have been. There were many reasons of course.

One must remember that it wasn't the best of times. The kyuubi had just attacked, leaving a portion of the village destroyed and many fine ninja dead. The largest blow of course was the death of our yondaime. The man who could single-handedly end a great shinobi war had fallen in defense of his village. In defense of us. Words cannot express our sorrow at that point. We all felt like we lost a father, even those older than our young leader. Even the sandaime openly grieved with us. A part of us had died. Could we do no less?

I was just an academy student then. And in the madness following the disaster, we were caught between mindless rage and inconsolable grief. Most of us that had just joined the academy could feel it, the way it seemed that everything had changed overnight. The aim was to produce as many ninja as possible to replenish our forces quickly. So all the so called boring bits were tossed away. History and diplomacy were almost fully gone, sacrificed to the desire for combat capable men. And to motivate us, we were given an outlet for our hatred and sorrow.

The enemy we had all been pointed against was the recently defeated demon fox. We were told that it was an attack upon our village. That the fox had killed family and friends. Given the lives lost and the way that almost everyone knew somebody who had died, we were all given a target of our hatred. And the fun thing was it was all official. We were conditioned to beware and if necessary, hate the enemies of Konoha. And the starting point was the fox. Next were the missing ninja. Orochimaru being the prime example. After that came the other villages.

It was interesting that they let us wonder if any of those things were connected on our own. Was the fox here on its own? Was it another village? Did the boogeyman Orochimaru come back for his revenge so soon? Imaginations ran wild and speculation became "fact".

But the biggest enemy was always the fox. Years later, I could see the way that the propaganda was designed to make us hate the fox. Everyone did it. And we were already doing it, so what was just some more? So did we. It gave us all another reason to become ninja. It made all that training worthwhile. Because when we were ninja, something like this would not be allowed to occur. We would stop it with our lives before we lost more. And I know that years later, this was the same attitude that would make Naruto's life hell.

Of course, while most active ninja were neutral to the topic, even they could not help but succumb to their own propoganda. The most well known jinchuuriki of the time was ironically the "weakest". The Shukaku or Ichibi Jinchuuriki had been wreaking havoc for years. And that was a madness that made it extremely hard to associate the very word with anything but death. Suna, with its less than stellar seal heritage used their weapon freely, making it easy for everyone to beware the same madness in their own weapons. Even Kumo, with its more stable jinchuuriki was known for its fairer conditions for them only later, when Killer B was able to slowly accomplish the same thing that our own Uzamaki Naruto did, respect.

In that time, we were always wary, even of the little kid who had an S class secret hanging over his head. Would he lose it, like the Shukaku host? Did the yondaimes mysterious seal keep the kyuubi away from the boy? Would the boy be able to, in a tantrum release the beast and doom us all?

When logic harnessed fear, what followed was terrible. In the end, our actions traumatized a little kid who had hopes and dreams and a desire to be loved. Were we responsible? Yes. But we were also guided to it, such that there are times when I wonder if this was all some gigantic life lesson imparted to the boy by the hokage and the village elders. They were ninja in the end, just like we were. And certainly, years later, even the most severe example of "demon hater" cheered when Naruto san took up his hat as hokage. Because his will was a force of nature that showed us his true self in the best way possible. By being himself.

-_excerpts from autobiography of a Konoha Jonin. Required reading material for chunin tier personnel._


End file.
